SAN FRANCISCO, CA-- Ramping up for Macworld, we received an invite to a "Guy Kawasaki Macworld Innovation Preview." Well, it was Guy, who was chief evangelist at Apple, and is currently Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, so we figured it was worth attending. We were pleasantly surprised by the announcement of the Mac version of what looks to be an innovative media sharing technology.
The application that Guy presented (and his group partially funded) is called FilmLoop, and takes many of the problems of current photo sharing systems, and adds a new, dynamic twist. Whereas todayis photo sharing requires one to pull users to come view the pictures, FilmLoop changes this and pushes photos to a useris desktop. This is done via the FilmLoop application, which is currently in pre-beta for the Mac. The cool part is that the scrolling photo strip shown by the application is dynamic; if a photo is added to the strip, youill soon see the new photo, along with the others that are part of the strip.
But thatis just the start. Creating a loop is a piece of cake. You just use the FilmLoop application, create a new loop, and then start dragging pictures onto the new loop. But hereis where things get very interesting. When you share a loop, you can allow others to add text comments, but also add their own photos.This crosses into a very interesting space of social networks. You could imagine a group of friends who want to share photos of an event, with each member adding their own comments and own favorite photos of the event.
Syndicated Loop Containing Engadget Content
Loops are normally private, and others can only participate if they are invited, but the adventurous can also publish their loops to share with anyone via the FilmLoop network. To access shared loops, just click on Network in the FilmLoop application, and click on Public. You can find loops concerning Art, Entertainment, Humor, Interests, News, Places, Sports. To prevent abuse, public loops are reviewed to make sure they contain no inappropriate content.
The FilmLoop software and system are currently free for anyone to use. There is a light sprinkling of ads throughout displayed loops and the Network portion of the application. There are currently 11 partners, AutoSpies.com, HP, iStockphoto, Turner Broadcasting System, Nestle Purina, Photobucket.com, Photo Marketing Association International, Primediais Action Sports Group, Reef, Twentieth Century Fox and World Picture Network. So you can count on some upcoming innovative commercial applications.
The Filmloop pre-beta software is available immediately by clicking here.